Monday, July 26, 2010

I don't like blogging too often (it feels like ear bashing people even if they do control the OFF button!) but I am driven to post again, the very next day, almost immediately on top of my last posting about rail in Victoria BC. I have had a busy weekend but two events - both linked - stand out in my mind and indeed grieve the heart terribly. On Saturday afternoon I went to the EcoExpo at the Christchurch Convention Centre. Originally, when I first heard of it I thought " oh - oh cheesy greenwash. lots of marginally green enterprises jumping on the environmental band wagon". But later with a chance to look at the line up of speakers, which included some very dedicated activists spanning years of unpaid, thankless (and sometimes abused) commitment, and after perusing the list of short movies, and noting that the Christchurch City Council was a key sponsor and noting [not least!] the very reasonable entry fee (accessabilityto maximum range of people given priority!) I was swung over.

In the event (or is "at the event?") there was maybe 50-70 stalls, a real range of businesses mainly involved with insulation, water use and conservation, energy production methods and recycling systems; and stalls for eco related community organisations, organic growing groups. and green orientated political groups. There was a small stage with more or less continual speakers and power point presentations. In another area acting as a theatrette movies screened about environmental issues.My main interest as always is transport - along with energy production or conservation - probably the key issue of the next decade or two if we are to find any salvation in the huge and catastrophic breakdown so clearly enveloping the world. Oh woe! One bicycle importer (or whatever) stall and the local public transit authority Metro (Environment Canterbury transport arm) represented by a couple of essentially meaningless Orwellian "let's be happy families" big posters in an any empty unattended boxed cubicle stall. As a centrepiece, albeit to one side -a solitary rotating stand of bus timetables. I must be fair here - I went about 2.30pm Saturday - perhaps the presenter had been taken ill, packed up his or her folding table and left early! I hope he or she is feeling better. I am not. How sickening that the public transport system has become so devoid of vision, so lacking in long term strategy or determination to create a viable alternative to the private car, or so underfunded that it can no longer project energy, forward drive, have plans and surveys to share.

The second event - so to speak - and so complementing the ECan display in a rather morbid way - was the opening this afternoon by Prime Minister John Keys of the new $230 million Mangere Bridge in Auckland. This has been built beside and matching the existing Mangere Bridge, and each bridge will operate in one direction only, with five lanes on each bridge.

Two of these lanes, a shoulder lane on each bridge,will be bus lanes. Apart from 52 general bus laning projects, which may have received government funding or part funding, during the last decade, this bridge represents the third major segregated bus lane project in Auckland in the last five years. The first was the 8.5 km Northern Busway - Government provided $200 towards this; the second was the central connector - a permanent bus laned accessway in and out the CBD up to Newmarket (including operating the Grafton Bridge as bus only) which cost $46 million (government gave $20 million). And now at last the Mangere Bridge finished (amazingly, ahead of time). By my calculation if you have 10 lanes and two of them are for buses, and the project costs $230 million [we will leave aside the sunk cost of the existing bridge] that means 20% of lanes are bus only - to wit 20% of the $230 million is a $46 million commitment to public transport. FANTASTIC! A government that puts its money where its mouth is. a real commitment to giving public transport the more even playing field it needs! Ahem, 'scuse me, yeah, ok, ok - we all know this is really the legacy of the Labour Government, not the present National Party government.

But then my thoughts swung back to that forlorn empty looking, unattended, colourless, planless, no projects to share or promote Environment Canterbury stall at the Ecoexpo.

I think of the $266 million, minimum, now spent on Auckland's busways [with 13% of the NZ population in Canterbury, in crude terms our local taxpayers fronting with a gift of $34 million]... not even counting the $1.2 plus billion on Auckland rail... and I think of the absolutely pathetic dalliance of local body politicians with commuter rail and light rail, without ever researching to see if these were actually appropriate to a city of our circumstances. A dalliance that has cost us a decade of lost opportunity, a decade where the smugness and insularity of Christchurch completely misses major trends in overseas in the key new rapid transit corridor technology; a decade where funding opportunity existed, was ignored and the opportunity then lost; a decade which approaches tomorrow with nothing but dreams of light rail and complete blindness to the needs to preserve bus and rail corridors along appropriate alignments, many being compromised or lost by the day.

With Auckland receiving over $1.5 billion and Wellington half a billion towards transit did not Canterbury warrant a few score million, perhaps some more just portion?

First bus off the rank .... and part of the reason for the rapid rise in Melbourne bus patronage . Recently retired blogster Melbourne&...

WELCOME TO NZ IN TRANZIT

This blog is mostly about public transport and social infrastructure in Christchurch, and transit around New Zealand. Also tracked; transit developments in similar sized cities in Canada and Australia, kindred in demographic patterns, for added perspective and inspiration. NZ in Tranzit blog covers some of the new transit technology and discusses public transport concepts in general, as well. Because the blogster's day-job is in a high profile customer industry to preserve some degree of privacy he appears only as a rabbit in his profile, albeit using his real name.

Christchurch is a city of metropop c 400,000 in Te Wai Pounamu, the southern of the larger islands of NZ. Public transport is operated under the auspices of a regional council with bus operations (and those of one small cross harbour ferry) tendered out to private operators including one owned by the City Council, Redbus. We have a modern clean fleet of buses which offer fairly frequent services to all city areas. The city has been quick to adapt new technologies such as low-floor buses, smart-card (arguably the best in the world!), GPS and Real Time signage and interactive text, and online type information systems. Our busiest route is The Orbiter, a service that circulates around the middle suburbs, and the ring of shopping malls, high schools and the city University about 4-5km from the centre of town

Christchurch also has restored trams operating on a central city circuit. Note [May 2011] - Sadly, due to two huge earthquakes (that took 182 lives) and multiple aftershocks much of the central city of Christchurch will be closed to public access for up to a year to allow the demolition of 900 severely damaged buildings. This includes a great many heritage buildings that previously gave the central city its distinctive character and (such was the exceptional ferocity of the second earthquake in February) even some of the high rises, possibly including those shown in photo above. Tram operations are suspended for at least a year. Many other parts of the city have resumed active life for both residents and tourists..

Locally designed and manufactured Gas-Electric hybrid buses offer a free inner city shuttle. The original Ashburton company Designline was sold to the US and 30 Designline buses are currently being trialled in New York . At a cost per passenger of less than a dollar subsidy and over a million passengers a year this was a very successful operation by any standard, alas suspended because of the closure of Christchurch's centre following the devastating Feb 22 earthquake

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LATEST ITEMS - Depending which doorway you came in by you may need to check out Archive Section [below] to get latest items. SEARCH use the search box at the top of page and keywords to find all postings and comments on any subject SUBSCRIBE - reminder you can subscribe [further down this column or by clicking on underlined word Atom at bottom of postings] to get regular dose of NZ in Tranzit sent directly to your email address. PHOTOS mainly by author or from Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise noted.

Recent boardings and blog position

6am November 1 2013 - the stats counter shows New Zealand page views, since the blog began in September 2009 just hit exactly 43,000 - not bad for an obscure blog about public transport, even allowing only a portion of these will be readers in the fullest sense.
However this dwarfed by US readership - three times the number, and total world readership.
Blogger Statistics feedback also show that NZ in Tranzit blog is currently (November 2013) averaging about 1,950 page views per week. This has been dropping to more realistic levels in recent months I suspect now that potential Designline investors in USA are out of the picture. Overseas readership is still about 85% of total readership.It is a bit of a weird imbalance, but costs me nothing.
The primary aim of NZ in Tranzit remains the same, to spread more advanced information, and to share new ideas, options and visions about public transport, in NZ and Christchurch. I feel a bit like some nutty hermit living in the wilderness, bearing witness to religious truth, unheard and mostly unlistened to, yet a very high percentage of what I am saying is merely passing on best practise concepts from overseas, nothing weird at all.

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CONTACT & COMMENTS WELCOME

Any intelligent blog, carrying almost correct information [and that is as good as it gets, even in newspapers!] requires hours of research, data base filing and investigation of topics. It will also probably draw upon a depth of experience that only comes with years of committed passion or involvement in the main subject areas. It's a lot of fun but also a lot of work, dozens of threads with which one must try to stay upto date. The downside of blogging, especially in periods of little feedback, is the feeling of talking into outer space with no obvious response, other than the page view counter ticking over (and perhaps this is just a mean joke by blogger geeks, a totally spurious invention to deceive bloggers someone is listening!) In these circumstances even one line responses, "right on" or "thanks for that info" or even "load of crap!" provides at least some morale boost.
NZ in Tranzit (aka the dwatted Wabbit -pops up everywhere ) welcomes all sorts of feedback, comments, opinion pieces or letters for and agin ideas put forward.
Apart from ticking the boxes or posting comments in the boxes provided, interested persons can also email information or comments off-site directly to Tranzwatch@gmail.com. It is recognised some readers are employed in transit or hold elected office, adding to the sensitivity involved. Be assured all correspondence or information sent to the email address is treated as totally private, except in the broadest sense of helping formulate a broader more accurate.

Auckland Commuter Rail Upgrade

Part of the massive makeover of Auckland's long neglected commuter rail network. A DMU from Waitakere in the West entering Newmarket's new multi-level station; buildings immediately above tracks are residential apartments; behind the train a double tracked in all directions triangle will allow increased options for trains entering or leaving Britomart

FREX UNDER THREAT

These beautiful Gillig buses (in cool livery) ply between Colorado Springs city and Denver (a couple of hours away). I steal this image from the Front Range Express website (click image) as a tribute to ALL small cities doing transit with flair and committment, everywhere

ALAS...........

The FrontRange Express service running multiple trips a day - mostly commuter orientated - between the small city of Colorado Springs and Denver two hours away is under threat. Despite 2008 being the busiest year in public transport patronage since the 1950s, transit in the USA is being savagely cut in response to the falling taxation base that supports it, in many cases reliant on funding from a small percentile of local sales tax. In a sort of act of self-cannibalisation, the transit authority for Colorado Springs has only managed to continue FREX service in 2010 by selling off some of the actual buses it uses. Hey Christchurch -open our minds, look around other cities in NZ and overseas, compare similar size places with similar key demographics - we could be doing public transport so very, very much better!

For example; despite 68,000 residents living in Canterbury areas south of Christchurch, in Ashburton and Timaru districts, twenty years after Environment Canterbury? took over local transit there is still no quality coach service, offering commuter friendly times and early morning access to Christchurch city and Christchurch International Airport from the south.

[see also October 2009 archives - Timaru to Christchurch in three Steps; also more recently, April 2010 Archives - Jumping off trains in Portsmouth

Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles

Despite the home of the car image, Los Angeles has been making big steps towards upgrading public transport, including this BRT system ( primarily on-street lanes and priority signals along the extended length of a main thoroughfare). The main revelance of this photo for me though is purely sentimental, as a city bus driver of "big red" buses (Christchurch Transport Board) this feels evocative of early evening rush hour. I drove late more than early and love the energyg of Friday and Saturday nights, despite the "crime" image 95% of people out enjoying themselves, loose and friendly! Two models of the larger capacity buses used for BRT services are visible in this L.A. street scene

Guided busway UK

Busways can be very attractive. Landscaping like this could make a corridor through St Albans a "green boulevard" from Northlands to city, for buses, cyclists and pedestrians. Potential - to carry half a million passengers a year or more. This would include a dedicated, all operating hours, all stops, 15 minute service (like Metrostar), and during peak hours additional buses, only stopping at stations at Northlands and Edgeware [pool site!] feeding in from northern suburbs and Rangiora etc. Running time from Northlands to first one-way cross street, approx 6 or 7 minutes.

Could trains in ChCh really fly ?

Melbourne airport, 24 million passengers a year (virtually the population of Christchurch flies in or out each week) workplace of thousands of workers. Yet studies show these numbers are insufficient to make a 5km rail connection (to nearest commuter line) viable. Linking Christchurch into a commuter rail loop (circular route pattern) serving multiple other residential, industrial and recreational zones might just give our small city (and by same connection our province) a rare edge to go where bigger cities and Auckland and Wellington can not go. Photo Melbourne airport bus.

Who's The Blog Driver?

Former Christchurch city bus driver and transport historian, author of many letters to newspapers and articles for publications. Has contributed many formal submissions and informal suggestions to city and transit authorities, from Taupo to Texas and, mostly, in hometown Christchurch NZ. A madness spanning 30 years!! Think global - act local....as Normandy in 1944 was won hedgerow by hedgerow so must a sustainable world be built bus stop by bus stop!! Photo, taken at first job in 1968. That dwatted wabbit just pops up everywhere!!

Followers

Eleanor Schonell Bridge Brisbane

The Walkway side of the bridge - the opposite side is for cyclists - and the segregated middle lanes are for bus use only. That's it - nothing else. no cars! That's a bloody deep commitment to a creating a better world - literally one where cars aren't at the centre. (Photo; Thanks to D McKelvey Flick-R).

Christchurch Nostalgia Stuff

The last timetabled AEC Mk IV bus, 25 years ago, leaving the city for Papanui. These tough old workhorses served Christchurch for 30 years. There "London Transport" styling and logos gave the city a big part of its once famed "English" ambience

Now Screening at Yube Cinema

Public Transport on the move! Latest addition, an older You Tube but good footage of Brisbane's Inner Northern Busway tunnels under city centre by engineers, Coffey International